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Cottonwood, Shaftesbury and TELETOON Strike SQUISH-y Deal

Canadian Media Company Joins French Kids Channel Gulli to grab Comic-Inspired Series

(Paris, France and Toronto, Canada – January 26, 2016) – Cottonwood Media and co-production partner Shaftesbury are pleased to announce a new development deal with Corus Entertainment’s TELETOON in Canada for its animated comedy SQUISH (52 x 11), while top French Kids net Gulli ramped up its prior development deal to a pre-buy.

“It is very exciting that SQUISH is moving into the key Canadian market. Cottonwood’s raison d’être is to produce premium content for global channels and having a top North American partner such as TELETOON reaffirms this goal,” comments Cottonwood Media Producer and Founding Partner David Michel. “We are confident that TELETOON will help the TV show attain the same massive success the books have had in both Canada and the US.”

With delivery planned for 2017, SQUISH already has a stellar creative team on board: showrunner John Derevlany’s credits include Lego: Legend of Chima, Johnny Test, Endangered Species, and Angry Beaver; and Executive Producer David Michel has co-created and co-produced 15 international series, including Get Blake (Nickelodeon), Redakai (Cartoon Network) and global hit Totally Spies!, the first French show ever to become a #1 rated series on Cartoon Network.

“Squish has already succeeded in entertaining kids in Canada through its graphic novels and we are thrilled to develop this concept for TELETOON,” said Athena Georgaklis, Director of Content, TELETOON. “We look forward to joining this list of talented writers and producers to bring these stories to life.”

Aimed at 6-11 year olds, SQUISH is an animated comedy about the secret life of Amoebas (yes, Amoebas!) looking to survive life in the cutthroat world of single cell organisms…not to mention school! The series is based on the original and hilarious New York Times best-selling graphic novels by Jennifer Holm and Eisner Award-winning creator Matthew Holm. Published by Random House Children’s Books, over one million copies of the existing six books have been sold to date, with a new book to be published yearly.

Gulli and Cottonwood entered a development deal for the series in mid-2015; Gulli has since ramped up its commitment with a pre-buy of all digital and broadcast rights for France.

Caroline Cochaux, Managing Director France & International at Lagardère Active (Gulli) comments, “We are still delighted to be a part of this new animation company’s first production, we are proud to be partnering up with Cottonwood Media on this adventure. Comedy is a beacon of Gulli’s programming and a natural fit for our young audience, so we are especially enthusiastic about working with all this creative team for SQUISH!”

Canadian producer Shaftesbury has also joined as co-producer of the series. “We’re looking forward to working with Cottonwood, TELETOON and Gulli to bring this scientifically hilarious series to life,” said Ryan St. Peters, Vice President, Kids & Family, Shaftesbury.

SQUISH is one of five projects on Cottonwood Media’s slate, which includes The Ollie & Moon Show, another original best-selling book from Random House Children’s Books sold to Sprout and Netflix.

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About Cottonwood Media

Part of Federation Entertainment, Cottonwood Media was founded in 2014 by David Michel with partners Zoé Z. Carrera & Cécile Lauritano. Cottonwood creates, produces and invests in premium, talent-driven content with a focus on bringing together North American and European audiences, on both linear and non-linear platforms. The company’s distribution is handled by Federation Kids & Family, a division of Federation Entertainment headed by David Michel which distributes original content from both companies as well as third party acquisitions. With offices in Los Angeles and Paris, Cottonwood Media currently has four series and one feature film in development.

About Shaftesbury

With offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, Shaftesbury is an award-winning creator and producer of original content for television and digital platforms, sold in 120 countries worldwide. Shaftesbury’s slate includes David Shore’s new series, Houdini & Doyle, for Sony Pictures Television, Shaw Media, ITV and Fox; thriller series Slasher for Super Channel and NBCUniversal’s Chiller; nine seasons of Murdoch Mysteries for CBC, UKTV and ITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment; and kids’ series including Life with Derek and The Moblees. Shaftesbury’s digital and technology arm, Smokebomb Entertainment, produces original digital, convergent and branded entertainment projects including the hit YouTube series Carmilla, funded by U by Kotex®. Visit us online at http://shaftesbury.ca.

About TELETOON

TELETOON is a multi-platform brand that brings kids and families the best in animated and animation-related entertainment with two nationwide specialty television channels – TELETOON and TÉLÉTOON. TELETOON programming is accessible through On Demand, Mobile TV, iTunes and online properties. TELETOON is owned by Canadian-based media and entertainment company Corus Entertainment Inc. For more information, please visit teletoon.com and corusent.com.

About Gulli

As France’s leading free youth and family channel, Gulli draws an audience of both children and parents, with 6 million viewers daily. Gulli is France’s best known channel in its category (95% of generally known rates*). Friendship, tolerance, cheerfulness, respect for others and the environment: those are Gulli’s values. Today, in addition to the television channel, Gulli is a true family entertainment platform available on a wide variety of media, including digital (gulli.fr is the French youthful leader with 1.2 views per month, Gulli Replay : up to 24 million videos seen a month, the free app has been downloaded over 2 million times) with a full audio range, magazines, toys and field events. These various modes of expression offer the whole family a multitude of ways of experiencing the brand’s values and communicative energy. (*families with children, source: Mediamat/Mediametrie, annuel 2015)